Olga Shapir

Olga Andreyevna Shapir (; born Kisliakova; September 10, 1850 – July 13, 1916) was a Russian writer, activist, and outspoken feminist.

Early life and family Olga Shapir was born on September 10, 1850, in Oranienbaum, Russia (now Lomonosov), a town on the Gulf of Finland. She was one of nine children born to a peasant family. Her father, Andrei Petrovich Kisliakov, was a former serf and employed as a military official in the commandant's headquarters in Oranienbaum under the Decembrist leader Pavel Pestel. Her mother, Lizaveta (Abramovich) Kisliakova, had aristocratic roots and was of German and Swedish descent.

Shapir notably attended Alexandrovskaia gymnasium from 1863 to 1865, one of the first public secondary schools for Russian girls, founded by Emperor Alexander I, where she earned a gold metal as a top student in the class. Shapir's intellectual curiosity led her to attend public lectures in 1870, including the “Vladminirskie Courses” which were created as a limited opportunity for Russian women to continue their education and participate in academic circles. One year later in 1872, Shapir married Lazar Shapir, who was expelled from the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg for his active membership in the Nardonaia rasprava ("Popular Punishment") led by Sergei Nechaev. She was able to get her husband reinstated, and he graduated in 1874. Lazar granted Shapir permission to complete a formal education, which was atypical for women of the time. Her first novel, entitled Na poroge zhizne (On the Threshold of Life) was published in 1879. Between 1879 and 1887, her novels, including A High Price to Pay: A Family Story (Dorogoi tsenoi: iz semeinoi prozy, 1882) and Funeral Feast (Pominki, 1886) critiqued female oppression depicting protagonists who sacrificed personal or professional ambitions for family obligation. In the Stormy Years pulls on Shapir's own experiences as a member of Nechaev's radical group and spoke out to protect Dostoevsky and his novel, The Devils.

Shapir also published an autobiography in 1907 that is available in Russian. In addition to speaking about the development of her prose and the influence of her upbringing, she documents how feminism shaped her focus as a writer. She says, "I recognized that the only way in which I could make a contribution of any value was to write from a woman's perspective and to reveal what only women can see in the eternal problem of love, in family relations, and in women's lack of rights in society" (p. 54). Advocating that women should not aspire to the same set of standards as men. Shapir believed many larger conflicts could be traced back to inequity between sexes.

Shapir compiled a report entitled "Ideals of the Future," where she argued to the cohort that women's worldviews are of equal importance to men's. Other topics discussed during the congress included the woman's role in the family, access to education, and employment. With so many opinions present, the congress was unable to reach unanimity about an intervention and so no direct action resulted at a grand scale. Still, Shapir's large involvement in its production spurred provocative discourse and encouraged women to come together and share their experiences during the old régime.

Published books Source: Antipody, 1882 Na raznykha iazykakh, 1884 Povesti i rasskazy, 1889 Bez livbui, 1890 Ee siatel'stuvo, 1891 Mirazhi, 1892 Vernulas'!, V slobodke. Deti otkazali, 1894 Liubou', 1896 Starye pesni, 1990 Avdot'iny dochki, 1901 Zakonnye zheny, 1902 Drug destuvo, 1903 Invalidy i novobrantsy, 1905 Ne proverili, 1905 V burnye gody, 1907 Sonina khatva, 1908 Chuzhoi, 1908 Roza Sarona, 1910 V temnote, 1910 Sobranie sochineniia, 1910-1912

English translations The Settlement, from An Anthology of Russian Women's Writing, 1777-1992, Oxford University Press, 1994.